Freight-car door.



Patented Sept. 20, 1910.

O O O O O O 00 P. L. LANE.

FREIGHT OAR DOOR.

APPLICATION IILBD AUG/.9, 1907.

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OOOOOOOOOO Z ooo o o UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANCIS LAWRENCE LANE, OF LEEDS, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR TO LEEDS FORGE COM-PANY, LIMITED, 01? LEEDS, ENGLAND.

FREIGHT- CAR DOOR.

Application filed August 9, 1907. Serial No. 387,913.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANCIS LAWRENCE LANE, a subject of the King ofGreat Britain and Ireland, residing at Leeds,-in the county of York,England, have invented Improvements in Freight- Car Doors, of which thefollowing is a specification.

Wagon doors have been made having a panel with strengtheningcorrugations, ridges and furrows or embossments and a surrounding ormarginal flange, the whole formed out of a single plate ofmild steel bycutting to shape, heating and pressing between suitable dies. Sometimesin lieu of the marginal flange there has been riveted to the door aseparate frame made by welding flat bars together.

Now the object of the present invention is to economically produce adoor which shall be very rigid; which shall be free from objectionablesharp outstanding edges such as obtain in cases where there is asurrounding pressed steel flange, which shall obviate the great expenseof the alternative plan of welding up a frame and drilling and rivetingit to the door; and which shall at the same time, render it racticable,in cases where one door is requlred to close against another, to jogglethe doors along the edges so that one door shall overlap another, thusmaking them rain-tight. For this purpose a door according to thisinvention is made with a continuous strengthenin corrugation or hollowridge surrounded by a plain marginal portion as hereinafter moreparticularly described. Such doors may have their panels formed withbuckles or corru- 'uations if desired to give stiffness and tofacilitate manufacture.

- Referring to the accompanying illustrative drawings, Figure 1 shows inelevation so much of the side of a wagon as is necessary to illustratethe construction and relative arrangement of a set of three doorsaccording to this invention. Figs. 2 and 2 are horizontal sectionsthrough the lower door and the right hand upper door respectively. Fi 3is a vertical section through the right hand upper door and the lowerdoor, and Fig. 4 is a detailed view to a larger scale illustratin themarginal construction and overlapplng of the two upper doors.

a is the door-way frame, I) the sole bar, 0

a portion of the wagon floor, (Z d are the upper doors; d is the lowerdoor.

Each door is pressed from a single plate of mild steel with a continuouscorrugation or hollow ridge 0 at a short distance from the edges of thedoor so as to leave a surrounding plain marginal portion f such as willclose against and overlap an appropriate part of the door-way frame asat a or the marginal portion of a juxtaposed door, as represented in thedrawings, where it will be seen the doors (Z d are j oggled and the door(Z overlaps the door (1 and that both these doors at their lower partsoverlap the upper part of the lower door (P, which is hinged at g; thehinge plates, riveted to the door itself, being extended laterally andformed with eyes at g for the fastening cotters h.

k is a cotter carried by the lower door for securing the upper doors,which are hinged at z and fastened near their upper parts by a cotter71.

In the example the panels of the upper doors are pressed withembossments 7c and the lower door with embossments Z.

Pressed sheet metal panels for ceilin s or door panels or the like haveheretofore een proposed with a continuous corrugation near the edges ofthe panel and the corners of which are curved, the portion of the doorinclosed by the corrugation being in some cases formed with dished orembossed parts of rectangular form, an intermediate flat portion beingleft between the dished or embossed parts and the corrugation, but aswill be understood such. a panel is not suitable for use as a wagon doorwhich according to this invention and as hereinbefore described isformed complete in itself from a single pressed steel plate.

It will be observed that this door is complete in itself in that it isself-sustaining, the character of the metal and the location of thecontinuous stiffening groove being such that the door requires nostiffening or bracing reinforcin additional margina plates to form thetop and bottom rails or the stiles of the door.

It will be observed that the dishing of the door plate is within themarginal hollow ridge, this dishing of the metal being formed bypressing it bodily in the same direction the metal is pressed to formsaid plates or bars and no hollow ridge. In this way the comparativelylarge area within the marginal ridge is bridged by an arch-like panel,whereby buckling under either transverse or longi-- tudinal strains isprovided against and the maximum stiffness with a given thickness ofsheet is obtained. This rigidity is increased by having the flatportions within and outside the marginal rib in the same plane, and itis further increased by having the edges of the dished panel parallelwith the adjacent portions of the marginal ridge,

the metal of the sheet bodily inwardly, the margin of the sheet outsidethis ridge being flat, said sheet having within said continuous ridge adished or arched panel formed by bodily pressing inwardly the metal ofthe sheet, the sheet between this dished portion and the ridge beingflat and in the same plane with the fiat marginal portion, said dishedor arched panel being rectangular and having its edges lie parallel,with the vertical and horizontal portions of the said ridge, for thepurpose set forth.

Signed at Leeds Forge, Leeds, in the county of York, England, thisthirtieth day of July 1907.

FRANCIS LAWRENCE LANE.

.W'itnesses B. CROWTHER, Trros. R. WHITE.

